Dennis Rodman lands in North Korea

Moon - a liberal who has historically worked for rapprochement, rather than confrontation, with the North - was critical of some aspects of US policy in the region ahead of his election.

The explanation provided for Warmbier's condition is botulism, which he supposedly contracted after his trial.

He told reporters at Beijing airport Tuesday that he believes President Donald Trump is happy with his visit "to accomplish something we both need".

WYOMING, Ohio (AP) - People in the Ohio hometown of a college student released by North Koreasaid they were pleased he was back and expressed hopes Wednesday for his recovery as he remained hospitalized in a coma.

He returned home to OH on Tuesday in a coma after being "brutalized and terrorized by the pariah regime", his family said in a statement.

On arriving in Cincinnati's Lunken Airport, Warmbier was transferred to a waiting ambulance that rushed him to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for urgent treatment, Fox News reported. His parents say the University of Virginia student had been on a tour of the reclusive country. Tillerson; however, did not discuss Warmbier's medical condition.

Yun immediately informed Secretary of State Rex of the situation, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the still-secret arrangements. "Fred, Cindy, and the Warmbier family have been remarkably strong throughout this ordeal". But it noted that the State Department is continuing "to have discussions" with North Korea about the release of other American citizens who are jailed there. His current visit has already been roundly criticized by some for its timing, during high tensions between the US and North Korea over its weapons programs and recent missile launches.

After the meeting in New York, Tillerson consulted with Trump, and Yun was instructed to travel to North Korea to bring the comatose student back to the U.S. The State Department demanded Pyongyang release Warmbier on humanitarian grounds, and North Korea agreed.

The BBC's Stephen Evans in Seoul says it remains to be seen if Mr Warmbier's illness is the direct result of brutality in prison.

While in Pyongyang, Yun also visited the three other American detainees, the report said. But Department of State spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Rodman had nothing to do with Warmbier's release.

"At the president's direction, the Dept of State has secured the release of Otto Warmbier".

"The last 17 months have been an extremely hard and emotionally trying time for the Warmbier family", she said.

Warmbier's release came during a visit to North Korea by former National Basketball Association star Dennis Rodman, one of few people to have met both North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, who was Rodman's boss on "Celebrity Apprentice". "Overall, it might have been meant to spur diplomacy, but I don't know if that will be the case because of his poor condition".

He was given a sleeping pill after becoming ill after his trial a year ago and did not wake up, North Korea said.

A congressional aide familiar with the process said Tillerson was adamant that Yun participate in the meetings only under the precondition that the Americans who were detained be the focus of the agenda and that a pathway was laid out for their release. Asked later at a Senate committee hearing about Mr. Warmbier's health, he declined to comment.

"Otto has left North Korea".

A former contestant on Trump's pre-presidency reality TV show "Celebrity Apprentice", Rodman visited North Korea three times between 2013 and 2014. "That's outrageous that they didn't notify the USA and that the Swedes have not been given access to him".

(AP Photo/John Minchillo). Alison Lebrun helps tie blue-and-white awareness ribbons along Springfield Pike near the family home of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016.